“The best camera is the one you have” – Chase Jarvis
Being one of the few people in my area who have an iPhone, I get a lot of questions about it (mainly questions about cost and stuff like that) but I also have people talk to me who know that I am a apple fanboy, and these people think they know everything there is to know about apple, because they have an iPod, or they’ve seen the “Get a Mac” ads. I usually just roll my eyes at these people, because the truth is, they really know nothing about apple and they are usually just trying to get a rise out of me.
The main thing I hear from people is, “the iPhone camera sucks” or “I can take video with my blackberry, you cant with your iPhone”. Well, the answer to both of these questions is “your wrong”. And I would just like to state.. PEOPLE its a cellphone, the fact that it can take any pictures at all is amazing.. so get over it!
First I will highlight the video question. You can actually take great videos with the iPhone. I use an app called “cyrecorder” (available in Cydia) which takes great video (check out my facebook for samples, as there are lots of videos on there shot with the iPhone.
As for the photos. Yes, I 100% agree, that if you use the basic camera app that comes with the iPhone, your photos are not going to be that great. However, when you go to a camera shop, and buy a camera (say a Nikon d40) which comes with a 18-55mm lens, guess what, your photos arent going to be that great either. In professional photography, you need to buy add-ons, you need to get new lens’, you need to (well, you dont need to, but you do) do post processing.
The same is true for the iPhone. Sure the basic camera takes pretty bland pictures, but, if you get the add-ons (in the form of apps from the iTunes app store) they can and will be better. The App Store has hundreds of camera/photography apps whose purpose is to make your photos better.
The following is a list of iPhone Photography apps that I use every day, following the list, will be a few samples of iPhone Photos I have taken, using these apps, and a screen shot of my iPhone photo apps.
Camera (just the basic iPhone camera)
ClearCam - available in Cydia (so you need to be Jailbroken. ClearCam has a couple of interesting modes. Enhanced mode will give you a 4MP image rather than the standard 2 MP image you get now on the iPhone. In ClearCam’s other mode, called QuickShot, it fires off 4 images, figures out which image is best, and throws the bad ones away.
Color Splash – available in iTunes App Store. An app that brings some of the sophisticated controls you’d find in Photoshop right onto the iPhone. ColorSplash can take a color image from your camera roll, or any image uploaded to your iPhone/iPod touch, and desaturate the photo selectively. You can have the photo all grayscale, except for a face, or take they sky to grayscale while leaving the rest of the landscape in color.
CameraBag – available in the iTunes App Store – this is by far my favorite photography app. Dramatically and easily enhance photos from your built-in iPhone camera or iPhone/iPod Touch photo library using CameraBag’s advanced filters that emulate several different camera and film styles, giving your photos an old-school, cinematic appeal. Photography is all about mood, and using the right camera can turn a throwaway photo into an all-time favorite.
iFlash Ready – available in the iTunes App Store. a sophisticated technology in a user-friendly tool that will enable you to enhance the image quality of your photos with a simple slider mechanism.
LittleSnapper – available in the iTunes app store. This app is more for sharing than enhancing. You can send photos to the web (quicksnapper.com) or straight to Twitter.. etc..
Night Camera – Available in the iTunes App Store. solves a problem some users may have when taking photos at night with the iPhone’s camera.
Panorama – iTunes app store. It does exactly what the name is.. it allows you to take Panoramic shots with your iPhone!.
PhotoEffect – App Store. Take a photo and add an effect, or taken an existing photo from your library, load it in and edit away.
PhotoFx – App Store. Much like PhotoEffect but with some other cool filters.
Quad Camera – iTunes app store. Great for the skateboarding photos I take, as it automatically takes sequence shots, in 4 or 8 fps.
Tilt Shift – App Store. Really cool app for turning your photos into tiltshift images.
So thats just a few of the apps available. I seem to find a new one I like every day, so the list grows. If your an iPhone user, and you use your camera, but none of these apps, your missing out on some incredible photos. If your an iPhone basher who says the iPhone’s camera sucks… get a life, there are some amazing photos taken with the iPhone.. just check out the flickr iPhone Photo Group…
Heres a few of the shots I’ve taken:
A fire hydrant outside my house:
Cool shot of a glass building:
A Building down the road from my house:
This was my office while I was working on New Orleans trip details:
I don’t even know where this photo came from, I must have accidentally taken it, but I like it!
This photo had no editing done, it was all based on the perfect lighting:
